A group of investigators at the Albany Medical College (AMC) are requesting funds to purchase a Noran OZ Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM), a type of instrument heretofore unavailable for their use at the AMC. Drs. McKeown-Longo, LaFlamme, Higgins, Mazurkiewicz, and Saba, are studying cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. The studies focus on various signaling molecules, integrins, cell junctions, cytoskeleton, and matrix proteins and the use of immunofluorescence and the CLSM to localize these molecules or elements of the cell structures to note their distribution with relationship to one another, to cell junctions (tight junctions, adherens junctions, and hemi-desmosomes) or cell-matrix interactions at integrin-cytoskeleton-matrix proteins, subsequent to a variety of stimuli, developmental cues, or gene transfections. Dr. Rice is analyzing fluorescently labelled structures and molecules in the complex three-dimensional organization of the cutaneous endings during development of the whisker pads of mice and rats. Dr. Black uses the fluorescent long-chain fatty acid analog, BODIPY-3823, to assess the uptake of fatty acids by Fat1p, a membrane- bound long-chain fatty acid transport protein found in yeast plasma membranes. He is studying the effects of mutations in the gene, deltafat1, on fatty acid transport. Dr. Schneider is testing a novel hypothesis of secretion in adrenal chromaffin cells that involves a Na- Ca exchange protein that is present in secretory granule membranes and that is inserted into the plasma membrane during exocytosis. Dr. Temple, in studying differentiation in primary cultures of rat cortical neurons, examines the appearance and activity of various receptor linked Ca++ channels in her cells. Both researchers are monitoring physiologic responses in cytoplasmic [Ca++] with msec kinetics that require the fast-scan capabilities of the Noran, as does Dr. Melendez who is studying the effect of MnSOD overexpression on the oxidant status of tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic cells in live cultures. Drs. Gosselin and Mazurkiewicz study the trafficking of GFP tagged-MHC Class II (MHC II) and exogenously derived antigens in antigen presentation in live human monocytes in culture. This group of researches will fully utilize the capabilities of the Noran OZ CLSM.
